Market Watch: Demand is high for Beatles, Rolling Stones, U2 rarities

1. $3,550 Shirley Edwards’ “Dream My Heart” b/w “It’s Your Love” — We start this month with a northern soul rarity from Shirley Edwards, in mint-minus shape. This 45 came out on the legendary Shrine Records label. Long in demand for soul buffs, it is featured in the “Rarest of the Rare” soul records listing on soulfulkindamusic.net.

2. $3,200 The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (acetate) — Here we have a set of two 12” mono Emidisc acetates for the Sgt. Pepper album, rated by the seller as in very good condition visually but sonically close to excellent.

3. $3,075 The Wailers’ “Diamond Baby” b/w “Where’s the Girl For Me” — An ultra-rare 1965 single by The Wailers, featuring Bob Marley, on producer Coxsone Dodd’s Coxsone Records label, this one doesn’t show up very often but appeared twice on eBay a couple of years, selling for $980 and $1,401 in VG++ shape. This copy is also VG++.
4. $2,927.98 Bob & Sheri’s “The Surfer Moon” b/w “Humpty Dumpty” — As if masterminding the Beach Boys didn’t keep him busy enough in the ’60s, Brian Wilson managed to write and/or produce a number of sides for other artists, including this one. A genuine Wilson rarity, this copy is in very good shape.

5. $2,750 U2 – “Pride” (Single Version) / “Boomerang I” / “Boomerang II” / “4th of July (Long)” 12” single — …but not just any old “Pride” 12” — this is a clear vinyl pressing from Australia which, according to the item’s seller, was one of just 50 copies pressed. However, a 2006 listing of top U2 rarities in Record Collector magazine noted just five copies and rated this the second-rarest U2 item (first is an Aussie rarity, a green vinyl pressing of “All I Want Is You”).
6. $2,550 The Beatles’ Help! (Swiss LP) — A near-mint copy of one of the rarest overseas Beatles LPs, this 1965 Swiss record club pressing of Help! features a completely different cover from the common versions: a group shot during the filming of the movie’s closing sequence, with Ringo covered in red paint.